Lighthouse Lost
by Cradlerobber Speedo-kun
Summary: Dylan shares detention with an unlikely companion. Featuring: an unusual slash pairing.


A/N: This was not inspired by 'Take On Me', although it does take place during a detention. It is a little bit influenced by it, though I first had the idea for this a few weeks back. The only reason that detention is the setting is because there is no real other logical way that these two characters would be in the same place for an extended amount of time together. I'm writing this to take a little break from 'Less Than Zero' (formerly 'Less Than Known'), but you'll probably be able to see a chapter on that to-morrow. I just don't feel like writing for it at the moment. If you like reading Jay-centric fics, you might wanna check that one out, though.  
  
Anyway, this is my last warning: this is slash. If you do not like slash, then please hit the back button or exit this window. I don't enjoy flames that are based on the fact that the story is slash. Why would you be reading a story you know you're going to dislike, anyway?  
  
Lighthouse Lost  
  
By Cradlerobber Speedo-kun  
  
It was a bright and beautiful Saturday morning. Spring had come to Degrassi, and many people had decided to spend the day outdoors, running around, having picnics, and just hanging out. It seemed the winter had finally departed, and everyone had decided that they were definitely going to enjoy the new-found spring.  
  
Except for a certain Jay Neeling. He had just stepped into the dim interior of Degrassi Community High, having been given a Saturday detention by the teacher who had caught him skipping and smoking. He made his way down the hallway in a manner that only he could pull of effectively, turning slouching into an action that you can move by as opposed to one that is done while standing still. He hadn't wanted to go, but his step- father had made him. And for one of the first times since he had turned twelve, Jay was actually doing as the school and his step-father had instructed.  
  
He walked into the cafeteria, blinking at the suddenly too-bright lighting of the area. "You're late." He heard someone bark at him. He turned and saw Mr. Raditch, sitting and looking impatient. He shrugged, and didn't respond. It was too early to be up, let alone actually be talking. Mr. Raditch stood up, indicating that Jay was to sit where he had been the moment before, "This is detention, Mr. Neeling, and tardiness is not acceptable. You will stay here the entire time, and will not leave this room. You aren't permitted to eat unless it is lunch time, you aren't allowed to talk to anyone, and you most certainly are not allowed to catch up on lost sleep. You may do your homework, though." Jay rolled his eyes at this, but if Mr. Raditch noticed, he didn't indicate it. "I will be in my office and will be back here periodically to check in on you two. Have fun, gentleman." Mr. Raditch left after having said that, leaving the heavy metal door to slam behind him.  
  
Jay hadn't even noticed that there was another person in detention with him. He now looked at his surroundings, vaguely curious as to who was joining him in detention. Too bad it obviously wouldn't be a girl, but it might be someone he could at least get along with... Maybe Towerz had gotten detention and hadn't told him. Or even Cameron would be good. He looked over at the other table and saw...  
  
Dylan Michaelchuk. Degrassi's resident openly gay boy. Wonderful. Of all the people, it was the fag.  
  
Jay scowled, "What the fuck are you doing here, Homochuk?" Dylan had noticed who had walked into detention, and had fully expected to hear something along these lines as a greeting, "I got a detention because I got in an argument with someone in the hall. Apparently Mr. Raditch was holding a meeting at the time and didn't appreciate this." Jay laughed slightly, "You? Get into an argument? I've never heard you yell. Of course, I've never been around when you were screwing some little boy, so what would I know?"  
  
Dylan ignored Jay and went back to the notebook he had been writing in. It was a journal assignment for English, and he was just supposed to write about whatever he felt like in it. The heading of the page read 'Detention: Hell, or Not Really Bad?' It was bad enough having detention without having Jay Neeling as his only company. The guy smoked, drank, stole, and was a homophobe. Not exactly his top choice as someone to spend a day with.  
  
The feeling was definitely mutual. While Dylan worked on his notebook, Jay had pulled headphones onto his ears, and was currently throwing pencils at the ceiling to try to get them to stab into the ceiling and stay up there. So far he had gotten two to stay. And he had every intention to get all of the pencils (he had five left) to stay up there, all the while ignoring Dylan's very existence. Or, as he would have told you himself, Homochuk's existence.  
  
But Dylan had had it with the ceiling target practice after only about ten minutes of it. Every time one fell out, it clattered onto the floor, and Jay scraped his chair across the ground, leaning over to get it. He looked over at Jay and glared slightly, "Do you think you could do something a little more constructive than that?" Jay stopped and stared in his direction, "Like what?"  
  
"I don't know. Do homework?"  
  
"I don't do homework."  
  
"You could read a book."  
  
"I don't have any."  
  
Dylan sighed, pulling his backpack towards himself, and digging around in it. He pulled a book out and tossed it in Jay's general direction, "Here. You can read this." Jay caught it, and glanced at the cover. He looked a bit suprised at the fact that Dylan would even own such a book, "You read this sort of stuff?" Dylan rolled his eyes, "Yes. I read about cars. Just because I drive the Michaelchuk mini-van around doesn't mean I enjoy it." Jay turned the book over, and absentmindedly stated, "I didn't think you homos were into cars..."  
  
"Well, looks like you thought wrong."  
  
"Oh. Uh... thanks?" The thanks sounded awkward coming from Jay, like it was a foreign word to him, one that he did not speak often. Dylan guessed he probably didn't thank people for anything very much, and that he wasn't likely to ever hear it uttered by Jay again, especially not in regards to him.  
  
An hour or so passed. Mr. Raditch had checked on them once and looked pleasantly suprised to see that they were not breaking any of the rules. Or maybe he knew that Jay and Dylan weren't exactly fond of eachother, and was suprised to find that one of them had no incapacitated the other. But he had departed very soon, and had now been gone for twenty minutes or so.  
  
Despite the heading of his entry, Dylan hadn't written a thing about detention itself. He had written about what he had done the day before, and about how he had ended up at detention, but nothing about the actual experience. But he no longer knew what to write, and there was nothing of note to say about detention itself. He found himself boredly tapping his pencil against the gouged fake wood surface of the table, wondering how much longer it was until lunch. Jay cast a scowl in his direction, "Hey, Homochuk, can you stop that? I'm trying to read, y'know."  
  
Dylan had a very hard time keeping himself from laughing. It was a statement that no one had probably ever heard from Jay. Jay, enjoying reading? It was nearly a paradox. And it definitely was an oxymoron. But he kept a serious face, and when he thought he could speak without laughing, he responded, "I'll stop. But why do you call me Homochuk? Besides the obvious reasons, of course. You seem to have a very strong dislike for me based merely upon the fact that I'm gay. And what I don't understand about it is that you are the type who doesn't like being judged by what you are, but who you are. You're a non-conformist, but you don't want to be judged by that. You want someone to know you before they judge you, and you get pissed when they don't. So why do you hate me just because I'm gay?"  
  
Jay blinked. It wasn't really what he had been expecting. He mumbled some nonsense, and got up, headed for the door. Dylan shrugged, and picked up his pencil again, ready to start writing again, but Jay turned around, "Hey, are you coming or not? What's the point of staying in this shit hole? Not like Rad-Bitch is gonna check on us..." Dylan looked up, suprised. But he got up, dropping his pencil on the notebook, and followed after Jay.  
  
Jay knew the school better than he did, that was for sure. Somehow they ended up on the roof, Jay sitting down to lean against on of the vents that sprouted from the roof of the school, letting the stale air of the school into the clear air of springtime. Dylan leaned awkwardly against the vent, and looked down at Jay. Maybe he had also judged Jay from first impression, but then again, it was hard not to dislike a guy who is always around harassing you for something you have no control over.  
  
"You never answered my question." Dylan finally spoke, sliding down to sit next to Jay. Jay shrugged, "I dunno. I'm a teenaged boy, what do you expect?" But he avoided looking at Dylan, and Dylan couldn't help but feeling a little bit suspicious as to the truthfulness of Jay's response, "I'm not sure you're telling the truth." Jay pushed Dylan away from him, sneering as he did so, "Well, what the fuck do you want me to say? That I'm a closeted queer and don't want to admit it?" Dylan sat up, frowning as he brushed some of the gravel off of his sleeve, "I don't know why I even asked. As guys go you're not even that good looking, and the negative personality is a turn-off even if someone did have a beauty-is-only-skin- deep outlook."  
  
The two sat in a sulky silence, not looking at one another. When Jay broke the silence, Dylan jumped slightly, having not expected anything more to be said after the last exchange, "My father. He... he left us because he was gay. He tried to make himself straight by marrying my mother and having tons of kids with her. I have four younger sisters and brothers, and an older brother. But then one day he got tired of it. He had met another guy, and decided he couldn't deny that he was gay any more. So he came home and just handed my mother back the wedding ring, and calmly told her that he was leaving her, us, the whole family, and it was because he couldn't live any more pretending to be straight." Jay sighed, digging at the gravel with his foot, "I never saw him again. He never even sent us birthday cards. My mother had trouble making ends meet, because I was only seven, and my younger brothers and sisters were all five or younger. She couldn't work much because she didn't have anyone to watch us."  
  
"That's why I hate fags. Because my father fucked up my life because he was a homo." A heart-to-heart with Homochuk. It wasn't something that Jay would've ever seen happening. And yet, here he was, sitting on the roof of Degrassi Community High , talking about this private stuff with the guy. And he didn't understand why he was telling him all this. Even Towerz didn't know this stuff about him. And Towerz was the closest friend he had ever had.  
  
"But we're not all like that. I'm so sorry that happened, but I would never do something like that, and I don't know anyone who would." Dylan said softly. Jay nearly exploded, "My father ruined my family! He broke my mother's heart, he robbed us of a decent life for a good three years, he left my older brother without any role-model, and he left his kids open to all sorts of nasty crap! My brother is dead, Dylan, DEAD. He resorted to drugs to get through life, and finally hung himself because he felt so ashamed, felt like he had let my mother down because he couldn't break his crack habit!"  
  
Dylan wrapped his arms around the uncharacteristically frantic Jay, not even stopping to think about who this was. He felt terrible for even having brought up the whole thing. Jay shoved at him, trying to push him away, "Get OFF of me, you stupid fag! I don't want you to be comforting me, I don't need it! Go feel sorry for some other poor bastard, because I don't need this!" Dylan let him free of the embrace, but his hands remained on Jay's shoulders, "Jay, do you even know what you need at this point?"  
  
"I need! I need... I need..." Jay sputtered, red in the face from shouting. But there were no more words, and Dylan felt himself being forced up against the vent, not completely sure of how what was now happening was happening. Jay was on him. Jay was kissing him. Or was he kissing Jay? He wasn't sure, and he wondered who had started it. But at this point it was mutual, and Dylan could feel Jay's needy hands clawing at his arms as he gripped him and held him against the vent.  
  
And then it was over. Jay was five feet away from him and getting further away by the minute. "Jay! Where are you going?" Jay didn't even turn around, and was gone down off the roof within moments. A few minutes later the front door of the school slammed open, and Dylan saw Jay storming off at a good clip. He turned away, and sat back down on the roof. Afterall, it wasn't like he could fight someone else's battles...  
  
But at least he now had something of note to mention in his journal about detention. 


End file.
